Safety container

ABSTRACT

1. A SAFETY CONTAINER FOR PILLS OR THE LIKE WHICH COMPRISES, A RECEPTACLE HAVING AN OPEN TOP, A REMOVABLE CAP FOR THE OPEN TOP OF SAID RECEPTACLE, A COMPRESSIBLE MEMBER ADAPTED TO SUBSTANTIALLY FILL SAID RECEPTACLE AND MAINTAINER IN RESILIENT ENGAGEMENT WITH THE RECEPTACELE CONTENTS BY APPLICATION OF SAID CAP TO SAID RECEPTACLE, MEANS FOR FORMING AN UPTURNED FLANGE ON SAID CAP, AND MEANS FORMING A DOWNTURNED FLANGE ON SAID RECEPTACLE DIMENSIONED TO PROVIDE INTERLOCKING CONNECTION WITH THE UPTRUNED FLANGE ON SAID CAP WHEREBY SAID COMPRESSIBLE MEMBER RESILIENTLY HOLDS SAID CAP AND RECEPTACLE IN INTERLOCKED CONNECTION.

14 1 Feb. 4, 1975 United States Patent 11 1 Mills SAFETY CONTAINERPrimary Examiner-George T. Hall 11 96 1 [76] Inventor 2: gi e Attorney,Agent, or Firm-Paul B. F1he May 3, 1972 ABSTRACT [22] Filed:

Appl. No.: 249,951 1 'A safety contamer 1nclud1ng an open top receptaclewith a downturned flange on its perimeter and a resilient cap having anupturned flange on its perimeter adapted for engagement with thereceptacle flange, the two flanges being held in interlocking engagementby a spring member preferably taking the form of a MAI-0.12 40 4 6l76Moi-. 0 21 2 2 1 1 A 4 1 N M .l 1 2 59 5/ a, 5 1 d] m 52 w 1 BM I m .c nr n .e m M L C M e U IF U H 5 55 compressible member secured to the capand projecting into the receptacle to maintain resilient en ment withits contents.

gage- [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,010,570 11/1961Sundstrom 215/37 R x 3 a 6 Drawmg F'gures 3,688,942 9/1972 Mitchell et215/41 1 SAFETY CONTAINER FIELD OF THE INVENTION and more particularly,to, a safety container for pills or the like.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION conventionally, containers for pills takethe form of small glass bottles or plastic vials having an open top towhich a screw cap or resilient snap-on cap can be easily applied orremoved; The ease of access to such containers has presented a seriousproblem in that more than half a million Americans were accidentiallypoisoned in their homes in 1969 and the greatest percentage of theseinvolved childeren under the age of five. The problem has become soserious that certain States have introduced legislation providing formandatory child-resistant packaging. Prior attempts to solve the problemhave resulted in rather complex and expensive containers which providenot only an economic limitation on their practical adoption but also inmost cases has resulted in a container which was difficult andinconvenient for adults to open.

Additionally, a small wad of cotton is normally placed in conventionalpill containers to maintain the contents immobile and preclude fractureor rattling thereof particularly during transport. Although such cottonfunctions effectively when the bottle is filled, when it becomespartially emptied, the cotton wad is insufficient in dimensions tomaintain its intended function. Furthermore, the cotton has been foundto interfere with access to the pills by the user and is frequentlyremoved immediately after purchase to overcome this practicaldifficulty.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is a general objective of thepresent invention to provide a safety container for pills or the likewhich is simple and inexpensive to fabricate yet is arranged to enableease of access in a fashion which is, however, unobvious to a child. Asa secondary objective, the safety container also incorporates means formaintaining the contents of the container immobile yet readilyfacilitating discharge of one or more pills when required. In generalterms, these objectives are achieved by providing a receptacle having anopen top to which a cap is applied readily but in a fashion so thatremoval of the cap can only be achieved through the initial step ofpushing the cap towards the receptacle which is in direct contradictionto the normal removal step of pulling the cap away from the receptacle.Thus a child, who has removed caps from containers by pulling the cap orunscrewing the same, will, if he functions on the basis of his limitedexperience, be unable to remove the cap from the safety container of thepresent invention. By way of example, this functional cooperationbetween the cap and receptacle for the pills or other items is achievedby providing an upturned flange on the cap which is arranged tointerlock with a downturned flanged on the top of the receptacle, suchinterlocking connection precluding direct pulling of the cap from thereceptacle. Spring means are interposed in some fashion between the capand receptacle to maintain the interlocking relationship of the flangesbut such spring means can be overcome by pushing the cap towards thereceptacle whereupon a pulling force at one position on the perimeter ofthe cap which is formed of resilient material and has its flange reducedin dimensions at such position enable such flange then to cam over theexterior of the flange on the receptacle to provide separation of capand receptacle.

The mentioned spring means can take the form of periodically depressedsegments which are arranged to resiliently engage the lip of thereceptacle adjacent its open top or, as an alternative can take the formof a compressible member of expanded resilient polyethyl ene materialwhich is secured to the central portion of the cap and projectsdownwardly into the receptacle, the compressive force against the bottomof the receptacle or any contents thereof reacting against the top toresiliently urge the cap and receptacle towards separation so as tomaintain the previously described interlocking flanges in suchinterlocking engagement. Such compressible member thus has a dualfunction of resiliently maintaining the cap and receptacle in theirassembled relationship and at the same time exerting a compressiveholding force against the contents of the receptacle to precluderattling or fracture thereof. However, when the cap is removed, thecompressible member is removed therewith thus providing full access tothe contents of the receptacle.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The state objectives of the inventionand the manner in which they are achieved, as summarized hereinabove,will be more readily understood by reference to the following detaileddescription of the exemplary structures shown in the accompanyingdrawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is an exploded view of a safety container embodying the presentinvention, the receptacle and cap elements being separated,

FIG. 2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view through the container withthe cap applied to the receptacle portion,

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view similar to FIG. 2 illustrating amodified embodiment of the invention,

FIG. 3A is a cross-sectional view similar to FIG. 3 showing the cap in adifferent circumferential disposition on the receptacle,

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line 4-4 of FIG. 3 illustratingthe interior surface of the cap constituting one element of thecontainer of FIG. 3, and

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view similar to FIGS. 2 and 3 illustratingyet a third embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION Withinitial reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, the first illustrated embodiment ofthe invention includes but two elements which are shown separated anddisassembled in FIG. 1 and are shown in their assembled relationship toform the safety container in FIG. 2 with a number of pills Ptherewithin.

One element of the container takes the form of a generally hollowcylindrical receptacle 10 which preferably is formed by rigid plasticmaterial, the upper end of the receptacle being open and surrounded by alip portion which projects outwardly and thence downwardly to form adownturned flange l2.

The second element of the structure includes a generally circular cap 14formed of resilient plastic material which is turned down at itsperimeter, thence extends inwardly and finally is turned upwardly thusto provide an upturned flange 16 generally dimensioned so that it caninterlock with the downturned flange 12 on the receptacle l0,as clearlyshown in FIG. 2. More particularly, the interior surface of the upturnedflange 16 of the cap 14 is tapered to facilitate ease of pressedapplication of the cap 14 over the flange 12 at the lip of thereceptacle 10, the resilient plastic material allowing the cap flange 16to cam downwardly over the flange 12 of the receptacle and thence snapinwardly into the interlocking position shown in FIG. 2. At one positionin its circumferential extent, the upturned flange 16 of the cap 14 isreduced in dimensions and preferably is severed at the center of suchreduced portion in radial alignment with an outwardly projecting tab 18on the cap.

Spring means, which in this first embodiment of the invention takes theform of a compressible member 20, is attached to the central interiorportion of the cap 14 and adapted to project into the receptacle 10 whenthe two elements are assembled and thus acts to urge the two elementsaway from one another, thus to resiliently hold the interlocking flangesl2, 16 in their interlocking engagement as shown in FIG. 2. Thiscompressible member is sufficiently long so that when the receptacle 10is completely emptied of its contents, compressing engagement with thebottom of the receptacle is obtained. On the other hand, if thereceptacle 10 is partially or completely filled, the compressible member20 is more extensively compressed but still exerts a force tending tomaintain the interlocking engagement of the receptacle and cap flanges12, 16. Accordingly, if a direct pull is placed on the cap 14, theinterlocking flanges l2, l6 retain the elements in their assembledrelationship and preclude such direct removal of the cap 14 from thereceptacle 10.

In order to enable removal of the cap 14, it is initially pusheddownwardly thus to bring the reduced portion of the cap flange 16 belowthe level of the receptacle flange l2 whereupon the tab 18 may begrasped with the other hand and pulled upwardly to effect a pivotalmotion of the adjacent portion of the cap 14, as shown in phantom linesin FIG. 2, which brings a portion of the cap flange 16 to the exteriorof the receptacle flange 12 whereupon continued pulling effects anoutward camming of the entire cap flange around the exterior of thereceptacle flange,thus ultimately enabling complete separation of thecap 14 from the receptacle 10. It will be readily observed that theinitial pressing of the cap 14 towards the'receptacle 10 is in directcontradiction to normal techniques for removal of a cap from any form ofreceptacle and, as a consequence, young children are effectivelyrestrained from opening the described safety container.

As will be obvious from the foregoing discussion, the compressiblemember 20 which maintains the interlocking engagement of the flanges 12,16 also maintains engagement with the pills P or other contents of thereceptacle as shown in FIG. 2 regardless of the quantity of the contentsremaining in the receptacle and thus at all times precludes rattling andfracture of the pills. However, since the compressible member 20 isattached to the cap 14, removal of the cap in the manner describedhereinabove will, at the same time,

remove the compressible member from its position of insertion within thereceptacle 10 so that complete access to the receptacle contents isprovided.

As has been intimated by the foregoing description, other spring meansthan'the'compressible member 20 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 can be utilizedto hold the flanges in interlocking position and one modifiedarrangement is illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4 wherein the receptacle 10'is of similar configuration to that shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 andcorresponding parts are accordingly denominated by like referencenumerals with an added prime notation. In turn, the cap 14' has a verysimilar construction so that corresponding parts are also indicated bylike numerals with an added prime notation. However, the spring means,rather than taking the form of the compressible member 20 described inconnection with the first embodiment of the invention, constituteperiodically depressed segments 22 formed in the top of the cap 14'which project downwardly into engagement with the lip of the underlyingreceptaclelO as clearly shown in FIG. 3, the configuration of the capsegments 22 being shown in FIG. 4. However, the lip of the receptacle10' is periodically provided with depressed segments 23 matching thoseof the cap 14. Therefore, if the cap 14 is turned, its segments 22 areshifted into mating relationship with the intermediate depressedsegments 23 of the lip as shown in FIG. 3A whereupon the laterallyprojecting tab 18' can be grasped and pulled upwardly to enable removalof the cap 14.

It is further to be understood that the compressible member 20 asdescribed in connection with the first embodiment of the invention canbe effectively utilized in various containers, one example beingillustrated in FIG. 5 wherein a standard receptacle 24 is provided witha slight protrusion 26 adjacent its open upper end which is arranged forresilient snap-type engagement by an indentation 28 on the interior of aflange 30 of a resilient cap 32, such structure being generallyconventional. However, in accordance with the present invention, acompressible member 34 can be attached to the interior surface of thecap 32 so as to be inserted into pill-engaging relation, as illustrated,when the cap 32 is applied to the receptacle 24, it being understoodthat the compressive force exerted by the compressible member 34 isselected to be less than the resilient snap engagement of the cap 32with the receptacle 24 so as to preclude accidental separation.Furthermore, while it is preferred that the compressible member 34 beattached to the cap 32, it can be insertd as a separate unit and the capthen applied to hold it in position whereby the contents of thecontainer are resiliently engaged and precluded from rattling orpossible fracture.

Yet a number of additional modifications can be visualized withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention and the foregoing descriptionof the three embodiments is accordingly to be considered as purelyexemplary and not in a limiting sense, and the actual scope of theinvention is to be indicated only by reference to the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

l. A safety container for pills or the like which comprises,

a receptacle having an open top,

a removable cap for the open top of said receptacle,

a compressible member adapted to substantially fill said receptacle andmaintained in resilient engage- 6 ment with the receptacle contents byapplication of laterally-projecting tab adjacent the reduced flange saidcap to said receptacle, portion, and means forming an upturned flange onsaid cap, and spring means interposed between said cap and said meansforming a downtumed flange on said receptareceptacle to resilientlymaintain the flanges in incle dimensioned to provide interlockingconnec- 5 terlocking disposition, tion with the upturned flange on saidcap whereby said spring means being formed by periodically desaidcompressible member resiliently holds said pressed segments of saidresilient cap which are arcap and receptacle in interlocked connection.ranged to engage periodically depressed segments 2. A safety containerfor pills or the like which comof said receptacle. prises, 10 3. Asafety container for pills or the like according to a receptacle havingan open top and a downturned claim 1 which comprises,

flange adjacent its open top, means forming a projecting tab on saidcap, the a cap having an upturned flange dimensioned to inflange on saidcap being dimensionally reduced adterlock with the flange on saidreceptacle, jacent said tab,

said cap being resilient, its flange being dimensionally said cap beingformed of resilient material.

reduced at one position and having an integral

